3 Healthcare IT trends that should be on your radar

For some, HIMSS may already be a distant memory by now. But, we suspect, the topics discussed at the conference continue to resonate through the halls of your organizations as they are here at RL. Maybe you’ve noticed some buzz online or maybe you haven’t, either way here are some of the topics that stood out to us!

Security is always a big topic, and rightfully so, as hospitals are home to thousands and thousands of private files. There are many things on the minds of IT Managers, but mainly they are looking to beef up security. Some of these concerns have stemmed from the higher possibility to attacks due to the increased vulnerability from Wi-Fi and Bluetooth access, building new security modules as they include cloud applications, and of course HIPAA compliance in a world where computers provide ease of access to tons of information.

Something we’ve been hearing a lot of lately—not just at HIMSS—is “we’ve got the data, but now what?” This is a great question. After all, hospitals have and continue to collect terabytes worth of data. Organizations are deep diving into their analytics to find ways to drive better patient outcomes, improving clinical workflows and staffing. Even hospitals that don’t necessarily have the manpower to take on such a project have been turning to third party data analysts to help them uncover what lies beneath all their data.

More and more, organizations are asking for interoperable solutions where they can experience the ease of having two systems share the data they need. And can you blame them? Beyond helping front-line staff save time to allow them to get back to patients, interoperability’s main benefit is providing structure in the way information is shared among hospitals.

These topics may seem like nothing new, in fact, security, data and interoperability have always had some sort of mention at HIMSS. So what’s different now? Nothing. Why we found it worthwhile to mention is because these topics aren’t going anywhere until we address them. So, whether it’s strengthening security over ransomware, or the growing movement behind interoperability, people are looking for results and we’re excited to see where it will take us.